The present invention relates to pumps in general, and more particularly to a high-pressure plunger pump.
There are already known various constructions of plunger pumps, among them such in which a pressure valve and a suction valve are coaxially arranged in a pump housing which includes a main body and a pump head secured to one end of the main body, wherein a plunger extends into the interior of the pump housing, and a sleeve is floatingly supported on the plunger and has one end portion which is closer to the pump head than the other and converges toward the pump head, and in which the suction valve includes a spring-loaded annular suction valve member which is supported at the region of its outer edge on an annular surface of a part of the pump head and at an axial end face of the sleeve.
A high-pressure plunger pump of this kind is described, for instance, in the German patent application P No. 26 31217. In this construction, the pump head is constructed as a one-piece metal block which is provided with a collecting conduit for the pressurized medium and with at least one recess for the pressure valve or valves. Experience with this construction has shown, however, that when the pump is to be constructed for operation at high working loads of, for instance, 500 kW, the pump head is extremely heavy, so that it cannot be dismounted from the main housing body of the pump without resorting to the use of special equipment, especially lifting and lowering equipment, which may not always be readily available at the location of use of the pump, thus causing extensive delays before the pump can be put back into operation.